The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the importance of conformity assessment mechanims within agribusiness context, with the view of proposing a set of recommendations for small-scale coffee growers from Guatemala. The increasing demand for healthy and social and environmentally-sound products have fostered the presence of these attributes in food products worldwide. Focusing on green coffee agribusiness, the scope of differentiation and quality concept should encompass social and environmental concerns, such as the adoption of sustainable productive systems and labor conditions under which coffee is grown, besides physical and sensorial characteristics of final product. In this context, a positive social and economical impact of differentiation in coffee market is the possibility to strengthen the position of small coffee growers in the production chain. The motivation for carrying out this research is to identify potential benefits of applying quality management and conformity assessment practices in the context of small-scale coffee growers from Guatemala, within the perspective of their continuous improvement in adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), traceability procedures and their compliance with international standards already accepted by green coffee agribusiness markets, at regional and international levels. The methodology encompasses: (i) bibliographical review on methods to assess agricultural sustainability, good agricultural practices (GAP), and infrastructural technologies, more specifically standardization, traceability and conformity assessment, including certification; (ii) international practices survey concerning green coffee agribusiness, (iii) international and Guatemalan outlooks of coffee agribusiness; (iv) case study on Fedecocagua, a federation of small-scale coffee growers from Guatemala, and three of its cooperatives; (v) formulation of recommendations for small-scale coffee growers from that country, in the light of international practices and also from the experience accumulated by the Program on Coffee Integrated Production (CIP), which has been carried out in Brazil. The main results can be summarized as follows: (i) an overview of competitive drivers of green coffee agribusiness, at international and Guatemalan levels; (ii) mapping models of sustainable coffee production; and (iii) situational diagnosis of Fedecocagua according to the analytical framework designed for this research. As a conclusion, this dissertation identifies some international sustainable practices which could be integrated in a minimal conduct code concerning green coffee agribusiness in Guatemala.